


Something There

by queen_scribbles



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 05:38:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14157960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_scribbles/pseuds/queen_scribbles
Summary: Sometimes, falling in love is a gentle, gradual thing. Others, it's a wild tumble down a cliff that has you thinking'Oh shit, I'm in trouble now'before you even hit the bottom





	Something There

**Author's Note:**

> @pillarspromptsweekly #29 fill, Temptation. Turned into a crazy amount of Edérity fluff heavily featuring Edér falling HARD.

 

Edér loved animals. This was a commonly known--and joked about--fact. “ _Beyond regard for life or limb_ ” Tavi had teased once as she smeared salve and wrapped bandages over tooth marks punched through his skin by a very frightened--but still _alive_ , which was the important part to him--white wolf. He shrugged and took it in stride. He didn’t mind the ribbing, or the dozen-odd scars that pocked white across his hands. He was happy being the man whose biggest temptation was the urge to pet fluffy things with sharp teeth.

Until the day he found a bigger one. Or rather, _it_ found _him_ , sitting in the back corner of the Dracogen Inn, enjoying some peace and quiet with his dinner while still getting out of his office for a while. He was halfway through his meal when he happened to glance up just in time to see Charity stride across the room and plunk down at a table with Peycg before pulling out a long, narrow--slightly uneven--swath of pale blue. _Ah, knittin’ lesson,_ Edér smiled to himself and decided not to bother her til it looked like she was done.

He finished his meal, biting the inside of his cheek a couple times to keep from chuckling when Charity grumbling loud enough he could hear her halfway across the inn. Just as he finished his last bite, Charity spouted a curse that was half vexation, half triumph, and freed her project--a scarf, looked like--from the needles.

 _Good timin’_ , Edér thought with a grin, and pushed away from the table to go talk to her. As he drew closer, it was clear she wasn’t entirely thrilled with the finished product.

“...have to do better than this in the future,” Charity was griping as he reached the table. She had that little wrinkle in the middle of her forehead again, the one that only showed up when she was being hard on herself.

 _Well, that needs to go away,_ Edér thought to himself as Peycg reassured Charity she’d improve with practice. “An’ I think it looks fine,” he chipped in, eyeing the scarf.

The wrinkle smoothed away as Charity smiled up at him. “Y’know, I’m beginning to think you have some kind of sixth sense for when I’m in here,” she teased. The fingers of one hand absently picked at the other as she continued, “An’ I’m glad you like it, ‘cause it was s’pposed to be for you, crazy man who doesn’t know how to dress for the weather. But now I’m reconsidering giving this monstrosity to someone I... care about.”

Edér met her smile with a grin of his own as he pointed out that he’d been there first this time, and just hadn’t wanted to distract her. “Second,” he continued, whisking the scarf off the table and draping it around his neck before she could protest. It was very soft, and a little bit fluffy, part still warm from resting under her arm as she finished it off. “It would be my pleasure to wear somethin’ made by someone who cares about me.” _And I care about right back._

Charity rolled her eyes at him and chuckled as she leaned forward to snag the ends of the scarf, tugging him down to her eye level so she could matter-of-factly inform him, “You really are a crazy man.”

He wanted to kiss her. The thought blindsided him out of nowhere as her warm brown eyes laughed at him and the dimples showed on her cheeks. And not one of their agreed upon pecks on the forehead or cheek, either, a full-on, honest to Eothas _ **kiss**_.

 _Where the **blazes** did that come from?!_ Edér wondered, even as he forcefully shoved down the impulse and kissed the tip of Charity’s nose instead, joking,  “Yep. Makes life interestin’,” to cover the mild bewilderment he felt. He stood straight and tugged loose the scarf, wrapping it around his neck a couple times. “I gotta get back to work.” _Assuming I can concentrate._  “See ya later?”

“Sure. Later,” Charity agreed with a nod, and Edér felt the warmth of her smile like the summer sun on his back long after he’d exited the inn.

                                             -o-  -o-  -o-  -o-

His worries about concentrating proved to be well founded. Multiple times over the next couple hours, Edér found his thoughts wandering back to that overwhelming desire to kiss Charity. Each time left him more confused than the previous, because he could not, for the life of him, figure out where the _Hel_ it had come from. He liked Charity well enough, but he’d never wanted to do, well, _that_ before.

 _Maybe it’s ‘cause you’re not used to faking_ , part of him piped up, which was a very good point. He’d never _pretended_ to be in a relationship before; any he’d had were genuine. So maybe, on some level, his brain or his heart had decided things with Charity were genuine, too, leading to the temptation to act as he would in a real relationship.

 _It’s the only thing that makes sense_ , he finally decided, running one hand through his hair with a heavy sigh. That meant it would probably crop up again, but at least he had it figured out. He wasn’t sure how that would _help_ against an impulse more overpowering than his urge to pet fluffy things, though. There was some saying he half-remembered about knowing being half the battle. He wanted to punch whoever had said it, ‘cause if knowing _was_ half the battle, it was the easy half.

                                            -o-  -o-  -o-  -o-

It only further confused Edér when that particular temptation spent the next several weeks dormant. It had done its damage, made him wonder, and now retreated to laugh at him as he tried to act like nothing had changed, when it felt like _everything_ had.

After about a month with no repeat of the wild urge to kiss his pretend girlfriend, he started to relax. _It must’ve been a one-time thing,_ he told himself. He’d gotten swept up in the combination of encouraging Charity and their pretend relationship. That’s all it was. He even managed to believe himself.

And then it snowed. Wasn’t the worst storm he’d seen in his time, but the four inches that had collected on the ground gave him a decent excuse to go check on Charity.

 _Do you need an excuse if you’re s’pposed to be courting?_ Edér ignored the thought, especially the fact it sounded like a very amused Tavi, and tugged his scarf a little tighter. It still smelled faintly like _her_ , which Edér did his best to pretend he didn’t notice.

He was distracted enough by his thoughts the snowball caught him completely by surprise. The cold of it stung his cheek as it disintegrated, what felt like half its mass managing to get down the back of his neck, under his scarf and coat. “What- !”

“Shit! Sorry,” Charity called out, laughing despite her apologetic tone. “I was aimin’ for your shoulder!”

“Sure ya were,” Edér chuckled, brushing melted snow out of his beard as he looked for her. It took a minute. “What’re you doin’ up there?”

Charity grinned down from where she perched on her roof and pulled a familiar calico cat into view. “Sparrow got stuck. Don’t ask me how she got up here, I haven’t a clue. Saw ya comin’ and I couldn’t resist.”

“Well, you know the sayin’ about fair’s fair...” he let the sentence trail off as he gathered snow from the fence rail.

“You don’t wanna hit Sparrow, do you?” she laughed, holding the cat in front of her like a shield.

“Now that’s cheatin’!” Edér protested with a grin. “Usin’ my love of animals against me like that.”

“All’s fair in love an’ war!” Charity singsonged, petting a squirming Sparrow to calm her down.

“An’ which one’s this?” he called up, snowball in hand.

She paused for a second. “War, I guess-- Sparrow!”

Sensing her human’s distraction, Sparrow wriggled free of Charity’s grip. The instant her paws hit the roof she started sliding toward the eaves, yowling all the way. Just as she reached the edge, she pushed off with her back feet, carrying her into a semi-graceful leap that just managed to reach Edér’s shoulder, which she then used as a springboard to the ground. She landed in a snowdrift and popped up hissing her displeasure before vanishing around the corner of the house.

“Well, that works,” Charity said, sounding amused. “I left the door cracked, so she probably headed inside. My turn, I guess.”

Edér grinned. “Need me t’ catch you, too?” _Because that’s not flirting with trouble at all._

She grinned back, bracing her feet against the roof. “I dunno, do you trust me not to kick you in the head on the way down?”

“Well, now that you mention it...” he trailed off teasingly, letting her huff in pretend outrage before finishing, “I think I can trust you, yeah.”

“That’s what a girl like to hear,” Charity laughed as she started inching her way down the roof. The eaves weren’t that high up, so when she reached the edge and dropped, it was easy enough to catch her. “Thank you kindly, Mayor Teylecg.”

“You’re very welcome,” Edér drawled, and then rather than simply let her go, he very deliberately dropped her in the snowdrift her cat had recently dented.

“Edér, no-!” Charity began protesting just a bit too late, and shrieked instead as snow filled the collar of her coat.

“Now we’re even,” he shrugged, smirking.

“Bastard,” she giggled, kicking out with one foot toward his ankle. He lost his balance in avoiding her and wound up plopping down in the snow next to her anyway. “Ha, serves you right!” she crowed.

Edér laughed. “You’re gonna catch your death,” he felt obligated to point out, reaching over to comb snow out of her ponytail.

“Says the man who put me here,” Charity countered, leaning closer to brush snow from his hair and beard. “If I do it’s your fault.”

 _Kiss her._ The thought blazed through, there and gone in a second, as he laughed in concession of her point. Still, it was around long enough for him to feel like he’d been punched in the gut.

“Well, we can’t have that,” he said lightly, kissing the tip of her nose. He made it to his feet only slightly awkwardly and offered her a hand up, which she took. Even as they made their way inside, his arm around her shoulders in half-joking protection from the cold, the thought circled back around.

_You really should kiss her._

_That ain’t what she and I agreed to_ , he argued. _Even if it was, there’s no one around to convince. So still no point._

_Kiss her anyway._

Edér fought down the temptation, even when they made it in the house and Charity gave him a sun-warm smile for helping with her coat. It got a bit harder to do when she asked him to start heating up the kettle while she changed into dry clothes.

“I’m craving tea,” she said by way of explanation, before something occurred to her and she shot him a sheepish half-smile. “Your things aren’t too wet, are they? I don’t know if I have anything that would fit you...”

“I’m fine,” Edér promised, despite the wet patch he could feel spreading down the back of his shirt. He didn’t want her to worry; they were nowhere near the same size and he was pretty damn sure she _didn’t_ have anything that would fit him.

“You’ll at least stay to chat and drink some tea, right?” Charity asked, hopeful note in her voice. “Warm up ‘fore you head home?”

“‘Course,” he smiled. “Gotta maintain the ‘illusion’, don’t we? Plus, I like talkin’ to you.” He winked.

Charity was all but beaming as she nodded. “I’ll be right back, then. I leave my tea kettle in your very capable hands.”

Edér settled on the couch and stared at the fire after she’d vanished into her bedroom. If he was honest, he was only half listening for the kettle. The other half was busy puzzling out the revived temptation to kiss the woman he was only _pretending_ to court. Sparrow strolled out from somewhere and hopped up to stretch across his lap, her tail tickling his chin. “Oh, I see, you’ve decided to forgive us,” he chuckled, stroking one hand down her back.

 _Miiiioaw._ Sparrow butted her head against his chin.

“Oh, you’ve forgiven _me_ , huh?” Edér grinned and held out one hand for her to rub against as he called toward Charity’s room, “Hey, Char, your cat likes me better now!”

“And after I climbed on the roof to save her sorry behind,” Charity complained jokingly, underscored by the sound of clothes being shucked and new ones being donned.

“Don’t forget tryin’ to use her as a shield,” he said, grin widening as Sparrow climbed up to balance between his shoulders and the top of the couch so she could rub against the back of his head. Edér leaned forward to let her have more walking space and she mewed her disappointment at his wet shirt. “Hush, you.”

“Hush you about wh- Edér!” There was no missing the reproof in how she said his name.

He looked up as Sparrow balanced on his shoulder. “What?”

“You said you were fine. Your shirt’s all wet.”

“It’s just damp.” He shrugged as best he could.

“Which is a type of wet,” Charity said with fond exasperation in her voice. “Here, let me check...” She slipped back into her room for a minute, and tossed something at him when she reappeared.

Edér instinctively caught it, somehow not upsetting Sparrow from her perch. It was a shirt, soft dark green wool, with two narrow cream-white stripes across the chest, just the right size for a well-built human male. He raised an eyebrow in silent inquiry.

“It was my father’s,” Charity explained, collecting Sparrow off his shoulder, but almost immediately having to set her down in order to swing the whistling kettle away from the fire. “I may have borrowed it without permission and kept it when I left home. I wear it around the house when I miss him and Ma. But it’s the only thing I have that’ll fit you, so...” She shrugged, tucked loose hair behind her ear.

Now he _really_ wanted to kiss her, gods damn it. Edér bit the inside of his cheek, pushed the thought down, and mustered a smile he hoped didn’t look forced. “I’ll be careful with it,” he promised.

“Good, ‘cause if anything happens to it, I’d be forced to call off our courtship,” Charity deadpanned. “And that would sort of ruin everything.”

He chuckled, rubbing the material between his fingers as he stood. “Yeah, we wouldn’t want that.” He opted to step around the corner into the kitchen to change. He could see why she’d ‘borrowed’ the shirt from her father; it was quite possibly the softest article of clothing he’d worn in his life.

“Ain’t seen this pattern before,” Edér commented as he rejoined Charity, running his fingers over the stripes.

“That’s ‘cause it’s from Ixamitl, not the Dyrwood,” she replied, handing him a steaming mug of tea. “My family goes back six or seven generations--on both sides--in this town near the eastern border. Papa’s always been proud of where he comes from.”

Edér raised an eyebrow at her phrasing. “You aren’t?”

Charity smiled wryly, a hint of sadness under the words as she curled her hands around her mug and Sparrow settled on her lap. “Hard to be proud of a place that doesn’t want you.”

He winced. “I know that feelin’ all too well.” He sat next to her and rubbed her back with one hand. “Look at it this way, if they hadn’t taken leave of their senses and kicked you out, you wouldn’t a’ moved here and met me.”

Her smiled brightened, teasing instead of sad. “That is _almost_ worth it.”

They settled into comfortable nothings small talk as Edér’s shirt dried, and he’d almost managed to forget the earlier temptation by the time he left. Almost.

                                            -o-  -o-  -o-  -o-

The rest of the winter passed without much fuss. There was only one other decent snowstorm(worse than the first, but not catastrophic), illness didn’t get much worse than scattered colds(enough to keep Charity from getting bored, not so much to be a real worry), and it never got cold enough to truly freeze.

Before they knew it Spring Dawn was upon them and the first bits of fresh green were poking up in gardens and fields. Edér and Charity took advantage of the time to hold a very private--almost _sneaky_ \--version of the Eothasian celebrations they both remembered from their youth.

“It’s nice havin’ someone to do this with,” Edér commented as they sat in the little chapel on the third day of Spring Dawn, his fingers rubbing the pendent that usually lay under his shirt.

“It is, isn’t it?” Charity smiled. Her fingers were occupied with twirling the end of her ponytail. “I’m so used to whispering the prayers and pretending I was talking to myself if anyone noticed, being able to put some actual volume behind them almost feels strange. Good strange, but strange.”

Edér nodded in silent agreement, and the two of them sat and enjoyed the quiet for a few more minutes until the sun’s light had fully come to bear. They parted with shared smiles to go about their tasks for the day. Edér tried to chalk the lingering ball of warmth in his chest up to _anything_ other than Charity’s smile, but couldn’t quite do it.

                                            -o-  -o-  -o-  -o-

The next day, the first of Early Spring, he rose determined to treat like any other. There was nothing special, nothing different about today. He ate breakfast, went to work, and didn’t think about it. Or, well, tried not to think about it.

But shortly after dinner, Charity strolled in his office, plunked down in the chair on the far side of the desk, and very deliberately leaned forward to rest her elbows on top of his paperwork. Chin in her hands, she raised an eyebrow. “Edér, please tell me you didn’t spend your entire birthday working.”

“How did you kn-” Edér cut himself off, half-smiling as he shook his head. “Tavi told you, didn’t she?” She’d visited a few weeks ago, supposedly just checking in, and she and Charity had had a half hour to chat at the inn while he finished up a meeting. He’d been afraid to ask what they talked about, but clearly his top guess had been right. Him.

“Yep,” Charity confirmed. “She said it would be something I should know about my suitor in anyone asked.”

 _Of course she did_. “Uh-huh.” Edér slouched in his seat a little. “An’ to answer your question, yes, I did. The work doesn’t go away or take a break just ‘cause it’s my birthday.”

“Well, are you almost done? I was hopin’ you could come by my place...” Her smile was mischievous enough probably should have been concerned, but he wasn’t.

“Maybe ten more minutes?” he guessed, placing at the pages-spread across his desk. “This is the last of it for today.”

“Great!” Charity grinned, eyes sparkling. “I’ll wait for you.” She pushed out of her chair and headed for the front room.

 _Alright, I’m curious._ Edér turned his attention back to the paperwork and did indeed finish it in the predicted ten minutes. He straightened up his desk a little, grabbed his cloak, and pulled the door closed as he left. “All done.”

Charity all but _bounced_ out of the chair she’d occupied, fighting a losing battle against a _huge_ grin. “Alright, then, let’s go.”

“Excited about something?” he teased, locking the office behind them.

“I might be,” she said, trying for coy, but much too starry-eyed to succeed.  “Just... c’mon, you’ll see.”

Now thoroughly intrigued, Edér draped one arm around her shoulders as they strode through the village proper. “As you wish, darlin’.”

His curiosity only grew as Charity got noticeably more excited the closer they got to her house. She must have sensed his amusement, because she shot him a knowing smirk. “Just you wait, Teylecg. I have something for you I know you’re gonna love.”

“I’m sure I will,” he chuckled.  _‘Cause it’s coming from you._  “But you didn’t hafta...”

“I know. I wanted to,” she shrugged, and he caved to the temptation to at least kiss her temple, which made her smile. “An’ you’ll be glad I did.”

Edér believed her, and so kept pace with her all the way to her house, sat on her couch, and closed his eyes when requested. He heard her giggle as she walked toward the kitchen, shooing hisses directed at Sparrow, quiet scuffling and another giggle before she returned and the couch shifted under her weight. Something warm and furry settled in his lap, and part of Edér knew before he even looked what sight was going to greet him.

Didn’t stop the huge grin that split his face when he opened his eyes to find a yellow lab puppy with its nose inches from his own. “What- I- How-?”

Charity laughed at his tongue-tied state, grinning pretty wide herself. “Cadwyn and Gjyra’s dog had puppies, and I know you love animals, an’ then Tavi told me when your birthday is, an’ I just had t-”

He kissed her. One arm wrapped around the puppy to keep it from falling out of his lap, the other hand curving around the back of Charity’s neck to pull them closer together, this time Edér gave in to the temptation.

It wasn’t a long kiss. Between the wiggly puppy in his lap and the surprised squeak Charity emitted, Edér broke it off after just a second or two and coughed sheepishly. “Sorry. I know that’s not... I shouldn’t have. I just...” The puppy licked his face and he absently ruffled its ears. If he’d thought the _temptation_ to kiss her was confusing, that went double for giving in.

“It’s fine,” Charity mumbled, fingers twirling a loose lock of hair. Edér briefly wondered if his face was as red as hers. Given how hot it felt, the answer was probably yes. “One slip-up’s not gonna hurt anything, right?”

“Right,” he nodded, running his hand through his hair and letting out a deep breath. He smiled bashfully. “It was just ‘cause you found my weakness an’ gave me a dog.”

Charity laughed, the blush starting to fade from her cheeks. She reached over to scratch the pup’s ears. “Toldja you were gonna love it.”

“You did have me pretty well figured,” Edér said with a grin. “You, uh, wanna help me name him?”

“Sure.”

They spent the next hour tossing pet monikers back and forth, slowly relaxing and trying _very_ hard to pretend that what had happened _hadn’t_ happened. And even if it had, it didn’t mean anything.

 _It didn’t mean anything._ No matter how many times he repeated it on the walk home, Edér couldn’t completely deny that there was _something_ that hadn’t been there before. He carried the puppy back to his room and set him on the bed, staring thoughtfully into the inquisitive brown eyes for a long moment before he sighed. “Well,” he said softly, “Shit.”

\-----------------------------------

Me @ these two _absolute idiots_ the whole way through

**Author's Note:**

> There were a couple scenes I literally had to get up and go walk circles giggling like the madwoman I am to get out the shipper feels in order to concentrate enough to write them. These Eothasian Idiots have just ruined me. I’M RUINED, I SAY (yes the title is from the BatB song. I regret nothing)


End file.
